African National Congress

The African National Congress (ANC) is a social democratic political party in South Africa, founded on 8 January 1912 by John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, and Sol Plaatje. In 1961, the Umkhonto wa Sizwe (MK) armed wing was formed during the struggle to end apartheid, with Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Joe Slovo being three leaders of the group. In 1994, the ANC's long campaign resulted in the end of apartheid, and the Bantu people were allowed to vote and run for office. Under Jacob Zuma, the ANC received much negative attention due to its alleged betrayal of his original principles and its alleged corruption, as it allied with the COSATU trade union, turning it into a bureaucracy. In 2016, the ANC held 249/400 National Assembly seats, 60/90 National Council of Provinces (NCOP) seats, 8/9 NCOP delegates, and 3/5 Pan African Parliament seats. The party had 769,000 members in 2015.